AI in Action • On-Demand Library

Continue the AI in Action conversation.

Watch conversations from AI in Action and explore resources from Northeastern University experts and business leaders working through the opportunities and questions shaping AI today.

Find recordings, expert Q&As, presentations, and materials from the year-round AI in Action series and Business Summit.

New content is added as the series continues.

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01 AI adoption & workforce change 02 AI strategy & business value 03 Expert perspectives on AI 04 Tools, frameworks & resources

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October 2026 AI Ready or Risky? September 2026 Employees Using AI Effectively Every Day July 2026 From AI Panic to AI Progress June 2026 AI in Action 2026 Business Summit

AI in Action • October 2026

AI Ready or Risky?

Full conversation

Is your organization AI ready, or AI risky?

After four years of generative AI, many organizations are still deciding which projects deserve investment and how fast they should deliver. In this AI in Action conversation, Usama Fayyad and Tom Davenport discuss how the market has reacted to generative AI, how leading companies decide which AI projects should exist at all, and why timelines matter.

Featuring Usama Fayyad and Tom Davenport.

Short clips

Watch a few highlights

The Generative AI Cycle

Four Years of Generative AI

Fascination, denial, delusion, panic. Usama Fayyad traces the stages organizations have moved through since generative AI arrived.

Move from talk to work Explore Working Labs

Prioritizing AI Investments

Right to Exist Before ROI

Tom Davenport explains why Capital One asks whether an AI project has a right to exist before it ever gets to return on investment.

Decide what's worth building Explore the AI Solutions Hub

Scoping AI Projects

The 12-Week Rule

Usama Fayyad lays out his 12-week rule for AI projects and what it means for how organizations scope and commit to new initiatives.

Scope it before you build it Explore Forward-Deployed Engineers

AI in Action • September 2026

Employees Using AI Effectively Every Day

Full conversation

How do you get employees using AI effectively every day?

Giving employees access to AI tools does not automatically change how they work. In this AI in Action conversation, Zach Blattner and Berkeley Almand-Hunter discuss what helps AI learning stick, including hands-on practice, role relevance, time to experiment, and how organizations can think more clearly about real adoption.

Featuring Zach Blattner and Berkeley Almand-Hunter.

Short clips

Watch a few highlights

Employee AI Adoption

AI Tools Aren’t Enough

Access alone does not create adoption. This clip looks at why organizations need more than licenses and logins if they want employees to actually use AI well.

Related page Explore AI education

Learning and Practice

Time to Experiment

Employees often want AI to help them, but they also need room to practice, test ideas, and build confidence before new habits take hold.

Have a question? Ask an AI expert

What Impact Looks Like

Measure Adoption

What should organizations actually measure? This clip explores why true adoption goes beyond simple usage counts and should connect back to work outcomes.

Next step Talk with our team

Featured conversation

From AI Panic to AI Progress

AI in Action • July 29, 2026

What Business Leaders Should Do Next

Where should business leaders focus as AI moves from experimentation to implementation? This conversation examines the decisions organizations face around business value, data readiness, agentic workflows, technical debt, talent, culture, and responsible adoption.

Featuring Usama Fayyad and Liz Kohler.

AI in Action 2026 Business Summit

Questions from the Northeastern community

Ahead of the summit, Northeastern alumni shared the questions they were asking about AI. We brought those questions to business leaders, researchers, entrepreneurs, and AI experts.

Watch their responses below.

Audience at the AI in Action 2026 Business Summit Breakout session at the AI in Action 2026 Business Summit

Career & Workforce

Should new grads be worried about AI and their careers?

AI in Action experts discuss how AI may change entry-level work, why early adoption matters, and how people can increase their value by learning to work effectively with AI.

Risk & Opportunity

Will AI save the world or destroy it?

AI in Action experts move beyond the extremes to discuss AI's opportunities, risks, regulation, and why fear should lead to better choices rather than paralysis.

AI Adoption

Are people really using AI at work?

AI in Action experts discuss transparency, culture change, everyday workflows, and human oversight in moving AI from occasional use to meaningful adoption at work.

Public Impact

How is AI helping regular people, not just big companies?

Hear examples of AI supporting under-resourced public services, including legal work and efforts to identify people who may be missing benefits or services they are entitled to receive.

Data Strategy

Why is data so important for companies competing with AI?

AI in Action experts explain why proprietary company data can be a major competitive asset, especially when it is fragmented, inaccessible to large models, or underused internally.

AI Skills

Do you need to understand how AI works to use it well?

Experts distinguish between building AI and becoming a strong user of it, emphasizing AI literacy, fluency, experimentation, and the value of learning across disciplines.

Education

Will AI make a college degree less valuable?

AI in Action experts discuss how AI could reshape higher education, why learning still matters, and how colleges may need to rethink what and how they teach.

State of AI

Where are we really with AI right now?

Experts cut through the hype to discuss AI's current reality, where its impact may be underestimated, and what organizations and individuals should be doing now.

Getting Started

What can you do this week to get ahead with AI?

AI in Action experts share advice on experimenting with AI, building daily habits, learning across disciplines, and becoming more effective in an AI-enabled workforce.

Continue the work

Keep building from here

Explore tools and resources from AI in Action, then see how Northeastern can help your organization build workforce capability, identify valuable AI opportunities, and move promising ideas toward working solutions.

From AI in Action 2026

AI Productivity in Business

Explore Usama Fayyad's presentation on AI productivity, emerging developments, and considerations for organizations deciding where and how to apply AI.

View the presentation

Continue the conversation

Ready to talk about what AI could look like in your organization?

Northeastern works with organizations on workforce learning, AI opportunity identification, prototyping, and implementation.

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